EDITORIAL

On the first page of the American magazine "US Today" of May 24, 2011 appears an article that advises high school students about the future job market: petroleum.

Here in Brazil, the newspaper "Estado de São Paulo" of June 5, 2011 printed an article on its Human Resource page alerting those looking for jobs about another equally important issue, which read as follows: "The correct use of the Portuguese language is fundamental for your career."

At this point, it is necessary to remind the reader that in 1876, the Frenchman Henri Gorceix (founder of the Escola de Minas in Ouro Preto) called attention to the poor quality of the education in the graded and high schools of the province of Minas Gerais.

This whole issue is about the controversy that exists over the school books distributed by MEC, MinistryofEducation, which containerrors in mathand Portuguese.These errors serve to demonstrate that even after the alert given by Henri Gorceix, there are serious faults in the education of the Brazilians in the graded as well as the high schools.

The main purpose of education is for the student to learn that which is correct. This avoids a variety of problems in the future and saves time. And this, evidently, does not occur when the educational model itself is incorrect, and requires future corrections.

When the American magazine is able to advise high school students about the future job market, providing economics details of the petroleum industry, it believes that students are prepared for the job opportunities and can understand the risks of future job choices. With this in mind, one has to ask: "Are Brazilian high schools also preparing their students for the future job market?"

Prof. Jório Coelho

Publisher

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  27 July 2011
• Date of issue
  June 2011